


another high (another low)

by cold_nights_summer_days



Series: Anchor [8]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: And He Gets One!, Comfortember, Day Eight, Dialogue Heavy, Gen, Lashing Out, Parent Tony Stark, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Protective Tony Stark, Sad Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark-centric, and it's not exactly amicable, and very little patience apparently, anti-hero pepper potts, so this is more about the aftermath of the lashing out but im countng it anyway, tony and pepper aren't together but they were in the past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:36:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27447235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cold_nights_summer_days/pseuds/cold_nights_summer_days
Summary: day eight: lashing out - Peter accidentally hurts Tony after a particularly rough nightmare. This is the aftermath.----title from roots by imagine dragons
Relationships: Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Anchor [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1996039
Comments: 5
Kudos: 183
Collections: Comfortember 2020, The Best Irondad/Spiderson Fics, The Best Peter Parker Whump Fics





	another high (another low)

**Author's Note:**

> heyyyyyy macarena! does that song make anyone else think of bananas? cause that's kind of what it reminds me of. anyway, it's late, I'm tired, and clearly make no sense. 
> 
> enjoy!
> 
> p.s. i don't know when this happens. it's early, but other than that I don't have any clues.

Tony walked in late to the board meeting on Tuesday with the world’s biggest sunglasses on. They weren’t his normal style, for sure, but they were the only ones he could find laying around this morning. Actually, Tony was pretty sure they were Pepper’s.

“What are you wearing?” Pepper whispered harshly when Tony took his seat next to hers. He elected not to answer, not wanting to deal with the repercussions he knew would come from telling the truth. A few seconds later she asked him again.

“You’re making the company look bad,” She added. Tony scoffed, because it was really just a pair of glasses, and it was easier to play the role of pretentious asshole than explain why he was wearing them in the first place.

“Am I? You’re the one whispering through an important meeting.”

“That you showed up late to. Why won’t you just take the glasses off?”

“Why are you being so pushy?”

“Why won’t you just take them off?”

Tony sighed angrily, drawing the attention of several other members of the meeting. He was used to the attention, but if there was ever a moment, he wanted it less, it was now. It had been five minutes of this stupid charade, and it was already old.

“Fine,” Tony snapped, ripping off the sunglasses and tossing them on the table. Pepper gasped at the sight before her: Tony had a painfully fresh black eye.

“Where did you get that?” She asked, voice softer now. She reached out like she was going inspect it but dropped her hand at the last moment.

“There was a bit of an accident,” Tony said by way of explanation.

“Did Peter do it?”

At least now the board pretended to be distracted by other things. Tony hated that Pepper immediately jumped to him, even though she was right.

“It wasn’t his fault.”

“He did that?”

“It wasn’t his fault, Pepper!” Tony hated to yell, but it _wasn’t_ Peter’s fault. An overwhelming (and relatively new) feeling of protectiveness swept through him, and it might have scared him if it hadn’t become his new normal regarding Peter. “It was an accident, and it was my fault, not his.”

“If he’s hurting you, then you shouldn’t cover for him—”

“Pepper, did you not listen? For the love of god, it wasn’t his fault. He was having a nightmare and I woke him up and he freaked out. Can you just stay out of it?”

Tony punctuated his question by standing up, picking up the glasses, and leaving the meeting. He would have had them reschedule if he thought it was going to be such an issue.

After making his way back upstairs, he found Peter sitting on the couch with a blanket drawn around his shoulders and a scared look in his eyes. The glass of water Tony had brought him earlier was still untouched on the coffee table.

“How do you feel?” Tony asked him gently, sitting on the couch to Peter’s left but leaving space between them. It wasn’t because he was afraid of Peter; he didn’t want Peter to feel like he was invading his personal space.

Peter didn’t answer, but he bit his lower lip like he was trying to distract himself from crying. A few moments later he mumbled something, but Tony didn’t catch it.

“Hmm?”

Peter took a deep breath before speaking again. “I don’t—please don’t send me away,” He said louder, risking a glance towards Tony.

“Oh, caro,” He responded, “I won’t send you away. Not over this, not over anything. Peter, I can’t even imagine doing something that horrible.”

“People have sent me back for doing so much less—”

“I’m not other people. You’re a person, not something that people can just return when they decide they don’t want you anymore. I want you to understand that because you deserve so much better than what everyone else has given you."

Tony had always been good with words for business deals and board meetings, but never when it came down to emotions. Not when it really counted, at least. But now he was trying, because right now it _mattered._

“Peter – shit, I’m not good about talking about this sort of stuff, so I’m sorry, but I just really need you to know that I’d never do something like that to you. I told you that you could stay forever, Peter, and I meant it. I really, one-hundred percent, actually meant it.”

“I don’t want to be a burden,” Peter countered. To an outsider it might seem that Peter was arguing because he didn’t want to stay here, but Tony knew it wasn’t the case.

“You aren’t. I promise. I want to do this.”

In lieu of a response, Peter leaned in for a tentative hug. Tony hugged him back, and silently promised that he would make up for all the shit the world had thrown Peter’s way.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear any requests you have for the future one shots!
> 
> If you want to read more, check out/subscribe to the series!
> 
> [Here's my tumblr! ](https://funky--lil--spider.tumblr.com/)  
>    
> Also, I've opened my comissions if you'd be interested in that!
> 
> [Support me on Ko-Fi, or commission a fic!](https://ko-fi.com/cold_nights_summer_days)


End file.
